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Chapter 5
If it were in the past, upon hearing Layla cry so pitifully, I would have wished I could fly over immediately to hold her and comfort her.
But I could only hold back from laughing out loud now.
I secretly cursed her in my heart.
However, her crying voice was so loud that it reached Aydan’s ears next to me through the phone.
He anxiously snatched the phone and asked her loudly, “Layla, where were you?!”
On the other end of the phone, Layla cried out to her father, “I don’t know where I am, Dad. Please come and save me! Sob…”
Aydan and Layla opened the location sharing and found out that Layla was only about an hour away from the village where Aydan’s biological parents
were.
Seeing this, he picked up the car keys and went to pick up Layla.
I pulled him and said, “Are you crazy? It’s already dark, and the snow is so heavy. The rural roads are difficult to walk on, it’s very dangerous. She is not far from her biological parents‘ place, let her parents go pick her up…”
Aydan looked at me in disbelief and then forcefully let go of my hand. “Caitlin! What is wrong with you? Even if you are jealous of Layla’s affection for her biological parents, she is still our own child that we raised. You know how dangerous it is at night, how could you bear to see our child hungry and cold Joutside? Just for a meaningless dream of yours? Don’t you think it’s outrageous?”
“If something happened to Layla, it would be too late for you to regret it! I have to go pick up the kids, you stay at home and watch over Aleah…”
I knew that it was impossible for Aydan to believe that Layla is a complete villain now, even to the extent of potentially killing our entire family in the near future.
But I couldn’t just stand by and watch him go to his death.
Under all circumstances, I stopped him and said, “I will make a phone call to have his biological parents pick him up since they are closer to there, after all, you would have to travel for another four hours.”
Aydan was skeptical, “Can that couple be trusted to go pick her up?”
I nodded and dialed the phone.
After explaining the purpose, the person opposite sneered, “What?! Am I hearing correctly? With such heavy snow, you want me to go pick up that damn girl, and I have to ride a motorcycle for an hour and a half?”
“No, I won’t go, no matter what you say. It’s so cold, who will take responsibility if I freeze to death? I didn’t ask that annoying girl to come and see me. She had to choose such a time. If she freezes to death, it’s just her bad luck.”
Upon hearing Ahmed’s voice, Layla’s biological father, again, I felt an intense hatred and a nauseating feeling churned in my
stomach.
I endured the discomfort, covered my phone, and didn’t let Aydan hear these words. I whispered, “She brought Precious Supplements for you.”
“What’s so delicious about that thing? Do you think I would brave the heavy snow just to pick her up for this little thing? Dream on!”
“Those things were worth two hundred thousand. You took them and sold them, which could be used às a dowry for your son to marry.”
Ahmed’s family was poor, and his two sons were in their thirties and still unmarried. This was the most painful thing for him.
Listen to me, Ahmed didn’t hesitate for a moment and said, “I will video call Layla right now, and if I don’t see any Precious Supplements there, I won’t go to pick it up!”
“Beep beep…”
After the phone call was hung up, I told Aydan that Ahmed had agreed to pick up Layla.
Although he was still very worried, he didn’t say much anymore under my insistence.
Ten minutes later, Ahmed likely video called Layla to confirm the pile of Precious Supplements gift boxes and agreed to ride his bike to pick her up.
Layla posted on Instagram: “Parents are still the best, even if others pretend to love you on a daily basis, willing to do anything for you, even if it means sacrificing their own heart and lungs, but when it comes to crucial moments, they will only hide on the sidelines. I miss my beloved father.”
The picture shows Layla with her little face turning red from the freezing cold in the snowy and icy weather.
三
